- ERO evaluates and reports on the education and care of children and young people in early childhood services and schools.
How well placed is Bright Futures Napier 1 to promote positive learning outcomes for children?
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Not well placed |
Requires further development |
Well placed |
Very well placed |
ERO's findings that support this overall judgement are summarised below.
Bright Futures operates under the umbrella of the Napier Family Centre, a not-for-profit communitybased organisation. Other services of the Napier Family Centre are an early childhood centre, parent education, family and youth support, a budget service, and psychological and counselling services. These services are available for Bright Futures whānau at any time if required.
There are six Bright Futures home-based education and care networks in Napier, Hastings and Central Hawkes Bay. An early childhood education manager is responsible for the oversight of Bright Futures. She is responsible to a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and a board of governors.
Qualified and registered visiting teachers support educarers to provide education and care for children in the educarers’ homes. Bright Futures also assist educarers by providing financial services and safety equipment where necessary.
Of the present roll of 97 children, 30 are Māori and 14 are Pacific.
This review was part of a cluster of three home-based network reviews in the Bright Futures umbrella organisation.
The approach to curriculum development promotes positive outcomes for children. Their interests are important. Educarers are supported by visiting teachers to provide children with learning experiences to extend their interests and strengths. Children participate in a wide range of learning experiences within the home and community. Many attend Bright Futures playgroups, the gym and excursions which provide opportunities for socialising with other children.
Assessment practices are in the early stages of development. Visiting teachers provide educarers with regular feedback about children’s learning. They should consider how they can more effectively support educarers make links between children’s learning and Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum, more explicit and further extend children’s learning.
Secure child, educarer and family relationships are promoted to foster the development of children’s sense of belonging. Positive steps have been taken to develop educarers’ approach to bicultural practice. Managers and visiting teachers should also consider the extent to which the curriculum builds upon the knowledge and expertise of Māori and Pacific children and families and what they bring to the service.
The board, manager and visiting teachers are successfully consolidating the service’s capacity to promote positive learning outcomes for children. Since the March 2012 ERO report, a new CEO, manager and visiting teachers have been appointed. They are actively involved in fostering purposeful relationships with educarers and families. There is a good team approach across networks. Professional development and the achievement of qualifications are strengthening educarers’ and visiting teachers’ practice. Many educarers have Level 4 qualifications in home-based early childhood education. New educarers are well supported through the induction process.
Systems to monitor and improve the quality and effectiveness of visiting teacher practice across the networks are developing. The manager is starting to provide feedback to visiting teachers about the quality of their records of learning. The recently revised appraisal process is designed to be more responsive to individual visiting teacher needs. The manager should consider providing more regular and constructive feedback to individual teachers about the quality of their work with educarers.
The recently established self-review process is useful and has the potential to assist the board, visiting teachers and educarers to know about the effectiveness of education and care for children. It is beginning to be used to improve the quality of learning outcomes. With the assistance of an external facilitator, staff have enquired into their practice. As a result, they have identified ongoing areas for further improvement. These include development of a bicultural curriculum, partnership between visiting teachers and whānau, and assessment practices linking to Te Whāriki. ERO’s evaluation supports these as next steps.
Managers and teachers should continue to strengthen self review to improve practice. Strategic goals do not clearly focus on promoting quality or effectiveness of practice in relation to children. Continuing the evaluative approach to review focused on the quality and effectiveness of practice and the impact on outcomes for children should be the major focus.
Before the review, the staff and management of Bright Futures Napier 1 completed an ERO Centre Assurance Statement and Self-Audit Checklist. In these documents they attested that they have taken all reasonable steps to meet their legal obligations related to:
During the review, ERO looked at the service’s systems for managing the following areas that have a potentially high impact on children's wellbeing:
All early childhood services are required to promote children's health and safety and to regularly review their compliance with legal requirements.
The next ERO review of Bright Futures Napier 1 will be in three years.
Joyce Gebbie
National Manager Review Services Central Region
17 December 2014
The Education Review Office (ERO) is the government department that, as part of its work, reviews early childhood services throughout Aotearoa New Zealand. ERO’s reports provide information for parents and communities about each service’s strengths and next steps for development. ERO’s bicultural evaluation framework Ngā Pou Here is described in SECTION 3 of this report. Early childhood services are partners in the review process and are expected to make use of the review findings to enhance children's wellbeing and learning.
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Location |
Napier |
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Ministry of Education profile number |
55319 |
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Licence type |
Homebased Network |
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Licensed under |
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 |
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Number licensed for |
80 children, including up to 80 aged under 2 |
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Service roll |
97 |
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Standard or Quality Funded |
Quality funded |
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Gender composition |
Girls 50, Boys 47 |
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Ethnic composition |
Māori NZ European/Pākehā Pacific Other ethnic groups |
30 49 14 4 |
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Number of qualified coordinators in the network |
3 |
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Reported ratios of staff educators to children |
Under 2 |
1:2 |
Meets minimum requirements |
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Over 2 |
1:4 |
Meets minimum requirements |
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Review team on site |
October 2014 |
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Date of this report |
17 December 2014 |
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Most recent ERO report(s) These are available at www.ero.govt.nz |
Supplementary Review |
March 2012 |
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Education Review |
February 2011 |
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Education Review |
February 2006 |
ERO’s overarching question for an early childhood education review is ‘How well placed is this service to promote positive learning outcomes for children?’ ERO focuses on the following factors as described in the bicultural framework Ngā Pou Here:
Pou Whakahaere – how the service determines its vision, philosophy and direction to ensure positive outcomes for children
Pou Ārahi – how leadership is enacted to enhance positive outcomes for children
Mātauranga – whose knowledge is valued and how the curriculum is designed to achieve positive outcomes for children
Tikanga whakaako – how approaches to teaching and learning respond to diversity and support positive outcomes for children.
Within these areas ERO considers the effectiveness of arotake – self review and of whanaungatanga – partnerships with parents and whānau.
ERO evaluates how well placed a service is to sustain good practice and make ongoing improvements for the benefit of all children at the service.
A focus for the government is that all children, especially priority learners, have an opportunity to benefit from quality early childhood education. ERO will report on how well each service promotes positive outcomes for all children, with a focus on children who are Māori, Pacific, have diverse needs, and are up to the age of two.
For more information about the framework and Ngā Pou Here refer to the draft methodology for ERO reviews in Home-based Education and Care Services: July 2014
The overall judgement that ERO makes and the timing of the next review will depend on how well placed a service is to promote positive learning outcomes for children. The categories are:
ERO has developed criteria for each category. These are available on ERO’s website.
ERO reviews are tailored to each service’s context and performance, within the overarching review framework. The aim is to provide information on aspects that are central to positive outcomes for children and useful to the service.
